Questions for Study & Community Group Discussion 1. Choose any one of the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – scan through it to find those times Jesus said or did anything that showed his love for people far from God. (Better yet, do this with two of the gospels.) Write down each one of these times, noting any specifics that show the depth of Christ’s love. If you’re in a Community Group, do this together as a group. Dividing this up between group members, you can do this with all four gospels. 2. Read Matthew 4:18-20. From what you know of the disciples during the three years they spent with Jesus, how quickly do you think they really understood what Jesus was leading them to? 3. If you’ve made the decision to follow Christ, to what extent would you say that your heart is captured by his love for spiritually lost people? Why would you say this is true? What indicators are there in your life? What are you doing or not doing that reveal the extent of your love for people far from God? 4. Write out Matthew 28:16-20 and circle or highlight every key word. Then write down what’s meant by this word. Discuss this together with your Community Group. 5. The word ‘go’ is emphasized in Sunday’s sermon. What would have been easy for the believers in Jerusalem to do were it not for the persecution that came against them? 6. Would you say that your natural inclination is to stay where you’re comfortable or to go where you’re challenged? Why? What has it taken in the past to get you out of your spiritual comfort zone? That is, if you’ve ever been there. 7. We get out of our comfort zone by personally building friendship with people far from God and sharing God’s love through Jesus with them. Have you written down the names of 5 people you can begin doing this with now? 8. We also can get out of our comfort zone as a church by creating multiple locations throughout our city…many more Brookside’s. Write down any questions you have about doing this and email those questions to Jeff Dart at
[email protected].
